Interview / Lion's Den

He beats ass up on stage for several bands, and in the ring as Samhain. Following the October 13th 2025 release of Enter The Den…, the debut EP from one of his latest projects, Long Island hardcore band Lion’s Den, I caught up with primary songwriter, drummer, and producer, Remarkable Wrestling Champ Sam (no government name needed).

As soon as I turned on Enter The Den…, I couldn’t help but go, “ahhh here’s Under The Knife”, was the conscious idea when starting this project to emulate that era of hardcore?

It was more than a conscious idea. It was the whole impetus for the project. The first song came into my head unprompted. Probably my brain recycling the parts of Hatebreed songs I love and have heard hundreds and hundreds of times over. Once that happened, I couldn’t just leave it at one song so I took it as a challenge to write a small handful of songs in that style. Since the idea was just to put out a demo for fun I had to no problem being unapologetic and on the nose about what we’re trying to sound like.

There’s no reinventing the wheel going on with this EP, just straight-up beat your ass hardcore. How do you view hardcore in 2025? Does innovation even need to be a point?

In hardcore there’s less of a need for innovation and more of a need for putting a unique spin on something that works. People have their differing opinions on where in Hatebreed’s discography they fall off but every one from almost all walks of hardcore and metal can agree that Under The Knife and Satisfaction are goated. It’s just some of the best, most to the point songwriting with the hardest riffs you’ve ever heard. Not to mention how fast it is for most of it. That era of Hatebreed is very unifying. Punks, youth crew guys, air max kids, and death metal heads almost all agree on how good this shit really is. I almost look at someone weird if they tell me they don’t like it.

What’s more important, the recording or the live show? Do you try to capture the live show energy when you record?

Well considering this band came to fruition because of the demo recording, I was focused first on making this recording as pleasing to my ears as possible. And by pleasing I mean disgusting scooped guitars, a snare drum that sounds like getting hit in the face with a shovel, and bass that sounds like your speakers are melting. We have played two shows so far but now that the music is officially out the goal is to replicate that sound live.

LI has a long history of some of the best hardcore music ever put out. What do you think makes Long Island bands consistently stay at the top of the pack when it comes to the genre?

Realistically it’s probably all the smaller sub scenes interacting with each other at shows. In places less populated and diverse sometimes there is just a scene of a handful of bands and maybe they all sound different but it can be harder to get variety. On Long Island and New York in general any kid can go to shows that are specific to one sub-subgenre and there will probably be some kind of representation of that sound in the local scene whether it’s the classic NYHC sound, more metallic 90s stuff, d-beat, death metal, slam, melodic hc, noise, or whatever that sound may be. I wasn’t around but I think you can tell from the output of certain iconic bands you can tell that was still prevalent in the 2000s and 90s, even if it was to a slightly lesser degree without everything being as accessible as it is now. The same could be said for NYC, Jersey, Hudson Valley, upstate NY, New England.

What was your first exposure to hardcore? Any specific experience come to mind?

My first exposure to hardcore was either hearing Bound To Violence by Hatebreed on The Punisher soundtrack CD or hearing River Runs Red thru a friend whose dad gave him the CD. Forgot which of those two would’ve happened first but both would’ve been around when I was 9 or 10.

What’s next following the release of Enter The Den…?

A split EP with a band called Evil Ways from Long Island NY.

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Keep a lookout for any Lion’s Den shows popping up, and make sure you go listen to Enter The Den…, which you can find my review for here. Don’t forget to go give the band a follow on their Instagram @lionsdenlihc and prepare for more enemy smashing music in the future.